1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an identification document, such as a passport or the like, consisting of a plurality of sheets which are bound into a book at a seam and at least one sheet of which forms a data sheet provided with information and consisting at least of two layers, at least one of the layers being transparent and the format of the layers being selected so that they protrude beyond the area of the seam thereby ensuring a connection of the data sheet with the other sheets of the identification document in the area of the seam, and to a method for producing such an identification document.
2. Description of the Related Art
Passports usually have the form of a booklet consisting of a linen or plastic cover and a plurality of paper sheets. To increase forgery-proofness, one page of the passport which bears the personal data such as name, date of birth, photo, signature, etc., is usually provided with a transparent foil structure partly printed on the inner side so that these data are not directly accessible.
The production of such a passport is described for example in EP 0 364 730 A2. The paper or plastic sheet to be provided with the user-related data is first laminated with the transparent plastic foil. This laminated data sheet is then bound into a book with the other non-laminated sheets, the format of the data sheet being selected so that it protrudes beyond the seam of the passport, thus being bound into the passport so as to form an edge area reappearing at the end of the passport. In a last step, the data sheet is provided with the user-related data by means of a laser beam.
However, these known passport books have unsatisfactory bending properties for the data sheet in the area of the seam since cracks already start to form in the laminate at the seam of the book after a few bending cycles. When the laminated page is stressed a few more times, complete breakage finally takes place.